Explaining Recycling

The paradox of life lies exactly in this: its resources are finite. However, it itself is endless. Such a contradictory state of play is viable only because the resources accessible to life can be employed over and over again.

We have used the Earth to satisfy our needs over centuries. To put it simply, we have exploited the Earth beyond her threshold point. The unfathomable misuse of this planet has given rise to a global temperature rise known as global warming. The rising temperature has led to the polar caps to melt, thus resulting in an increase of ocean water, raising sea-levels, etc. To quote Henry David Thoreau, ‘what’s utilization of a house if you do not have a tolerable planet to put it on?’.

A Crowd of Information On Recycling

Water recycling is something that has been consistently done in nature by the earth. The earth reuses water frequently in the forms of precipitation that is up to the earth, gathers here as bodies of water that evaporate back into the air and refall as precipitation, starting the cycle over.

Recycling has become the need of the hour, as the whole world is reeling under the pressure of many complex environmental issues. The wanton destruction of rain forests has left many species of animals and plants on the edge of extinction. Inconsiderately, rain forests have been cut down for timber, paper, and regional development. The everyday printing and writing paper that we use in our offices come from the rainforests in Australia. Recycling of paper at the household level has seen a popular upward trend. However, fresh timber finds its way to the office. Rainforests play a major role in maintaining the ecosystem. These we’re all a part of. This means that we’re all interdependent and this necessitates recycling at every step.

Paper first. Most recycling centers accept all paper products. You can start by reducing the number of paper that comes in to our house. Cancel subscriptions to newspapers and magazines you do not read or if you tend to read the latest news online or watch the TV news channels, do you really need the newspaper? Cut down on your junk mail too by putting up huge signs on your mailbox. Recycle things like envelopes, packing material, etc. Print both sides of the paper and whenever you can use recycled paper.

Recycling literally means to reuse the items that have been previously used once. It implies reprocessing the used materials to prevent waste generated by household or industrial dumping. Recycling helps in lowering the greenhouse gas emissions and landfilling. Landfilling is the oldest and the most crude way of disposing waste. The process involves disposal of waste by burial. Although this is the organized method of waste disposal, it has severe negative effects on people staying close to these regions and also to the surrounding environment.

Landfill is the biggest problem we face today. As we produce more and more garbage, we require a place to dispose it off. So, this garbage is either disposed off by burying it below the soil or dumping it in a place. The place where this garbage is accumulated is known as landfill. The biggest advantage of recycling is, the reuse of non-biodegradable material reduces the amount of items that would get filed in the landfill area. These items are one of the main contributor to the greenhouse gases polluting the environment. Recycling of paper, plastic, glass, and such other materials which is easily possible, helps in keeping the environment a little bit cleaner.

Benefits of recycling plastic to environment: Landfills can be recovered: One of the biggest problems being faced today lies in the fact that there are fewer places to dump plastic waste (landfills) due to them being almost full. An effective solution for this is to go for recycling. Leads to oil conservation: Compared to making new, original plastic, plastic recycling helps in saving 4 barrels of oil.

Here is an illustration of the procedure of recycling plastic milk jugs. The jugs are first split up from other plastics and are cleaned then ground down. After this process the jugs are melted down and go through an extruder to mould them into an oblong shape. When the plastic comes out of the extruder, the make-up of this recycled plastic is similar to play dough. Jets of water are employed in a cooling chamber to make sure the plastic does not rise like bread dough. This is repeated again to make sure the plastic is okay for the next stage after being air-dried for a while. Once this is done, the plastic lumber that remains can be taken into several items.

Though this process has many advantages, it is a complex process. The sorting of plastics according to colour and type etc can be more tedious and isn’t as profitable as the materials to begin with are worth less. Even though there are these negatives, people should always be encouraged to recycle plastics as the advantages far outweigh them.

It takes a lot less energy to recycle the materials for creating new products, than to produce them from scratch. For instance, paper, steel, aluminium, and plastic can be extracted from scrap and can be reused in respect of the same or different purposes. This not only saves the energy which is spent in manufacturing the products, but likewise renders some important environmental benefits. Lesser greenhouse gases are emitted in to air, water and soil. This is turn keeps the surrounding safer to live in. Also, the need for manufacturing is relatively lessened.

The real importance of recycling is felt when the landfill area is used less. As less garbage is dumped, it results in lesser emission of harmful gases. Additionally, garbage dumps act as huge magnets for flies, and diseases they breed. The lesser garbage we produce, higher are the chances of life in a healthy surrounding. Recycling the products also reduces the carbon footprint of the product.

Recycling also results in some serious cost savings. The cost of recycled goods is a lot cheaper than the new ones, for example. Compost made at home, by recycling the everyday garbage helps you save a lot on you monthly budget, as compared buying compost. Saving money by buying recycled items, is effective saving the environment.

Plastic has been the long debated topic in the recycling revolution. Plastic recycling means gathering things right from plastic bottles and caps and processing them into tables and chairs. On the plus side, HDPE (high-density polyethylene), LDPE (low density polyethylene), PP (polypropylene), PS (, and PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) polystyrene) are some of the kinds of plastics that can be recycled. A negative side of plastic is that it isn’t biodegradable and hence cannot be just disposed off. Burning plastic is the most illogical way to get rid of it. The moment this seemingly harmless trash is set on fire, it releases a toxic gas known as dioxin. The biggest problem faced by plastic recycling is the sorting of plastic into recyclable and non-recyclable types. The non-recycled plastic again results in landfilling.

Recycling at household level has been shown to be very beneficial. Kitchen and garden waste is recycled by composting. The aerobic bacteria that breaks the waste materials into fertile top soil are referred to as humus. Humus reinvigorates vital nutrients and organic matter into the soil. Beautiful gardens and splendid parks can be made out of this soil.

Glass recycling turns the used waste glass into new usable products. It helps in saving the many raw materials that go into making glass. Glass refilling is a famously observed norm in developing countries like India and Brazil. As the phrase suggests, old bottles are refilled to save costs to the company. This also reduces a large amount of waste sent to landfill.

The items and materials that we use in our everyday lives such as textiles, paper, plastic, timber, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, batteries, and paint can be recycled. Recycling not only affects the environment in a positive way but also re-creates the lost resources. Increase in wealth, population and technical and the various lifestyle changes, have all led to an unmanageable amount of waste. Harmful gases and chemicals are released into the air by the rubbish in the landfill sites. Recycling will ensure in restoring the habitats and forest lands. This is the planet that gave us our lives. If she had the authority to create, then she also has the authority to destroy if we keep abusing her.